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Johnny Devine
=Johnny Devine= Johnny Devine is an American professional wrestler who currently works for the WCSF. Wrestling on the Rampage Brand of the company, he is also a member of The Mafia along with Mark Thomas, Nick Foster, Charisma and their consigliore Tuck Stevens. He is also known for his nickname, which is The Gambler. High Voltage Johnny Devine made his debut on High Voltage in the Summer of 2006. He debuted as part of The Mafia along with Blair Trotter and Lou Cuttino. As part of The Mafia, he made a name for himself on the show, most notbaly during The Mafia's feuds with Flux and The Union Jacks. It wasn't long before he was called up to the Mayhem brand along with Blair Trotter and a latter member of The Mafia and their consigliore Tuck Stevens. Mayhem As soon as The Mafia were called up to Mayhem, they entered the tag team scene which resulted in their first pay per view appearance at Annihilation 2006. Competing in a four way tables tag team match for the tag team titles of the brand, Devine and Trotter narrolwy lost to Re-Juvenated. Soon after, The Mafia were moved to Unleashed (now Rampage) and Devine's career skyrocketed from here on. Rampage (formerly Unleashed) The Mafia made an instant impact on the Unleashed brand, continuing where they left off with Flux on High Voltage months earlier. However, the feud was cut short soon after due to Flux leaving the company. However, Devine and The Mafia were put on the map at Wednesday Night Warzone when they assisted Alex Morgan in winning the Unleashed World Title from The Executioner when he cashed in his Gold Rush Contract. The recognition from this incident led to The Mafia being chosen to challenge for the tag team titles against The Untouchables at Hacked, resulting if Devine capturing his first of three WCSF tag team championships with the help of Alex Morgan. Soon after their title win, The Mafia turned face and soon entered a feud with The Gamers, resulting in The Mafia retaining their titles at Nothing to Lose. The Mafia's first title reign came to an end at Revolution 3 when they lost them to the Natural Born Killers in a four way tag team match. However, The Mafia regained the tag titles at the following pay per view (Destruction) when they defeated the Natural Born Killers in their tag team rematch. The New Mafia Devine's second tag title reign ended quickly when The Mafia lost the titles to the unlikely combination of Muntari Mebah and Anthony Blake. Following the loss, Devine began to put the blame on Blair Trotter for the loss of the belts and a feud soon erupted between the two Mafia members. This culvinated in a tag team match at Total Carnage 2008, in which both Devine and Trotter chose partners of their choice for the match. Devine brought in the services of Mark Thomas for the match while Trotter acquired Nick Foster as his tag team partner. However, that acquisition turned out to be the downfall of Blair Trotter's career when Nick Foster turned on him and aligned himself with Devine, Thomas and Stevens, creating the "new" Mafia in the process. Soon after, Devine entered a feud with Johnny Briggs, leading to a match at Meltdown 2008. The Crash Test Dummy won the match due to outside interference from other Mafia members, much to the dissatisfaction of Devine. Devine took his anger out on the referee after the match, leading to a series of interactions between The Mafia and refereeing staff in the WCSF. Devine continued to be a thorn in the side of Johnny Briggs, who was disgusted at the actions of The Mafia member at Meltdown. One notable incident saw Devine cause Briggs a victory against Tomohiro Matsuda on Unleashed, which released an anger from Briggs which had never been seen before. Briggs then challenged Devine to an I Quit match at Annihilation 2008, a match in which Devine accepted. The match is considered to be an arguable showstealer for an event which was jam packed with great matches. However, Devine lost the match when Briggs threatened to set him on fire. Following the loss, Devine appeared on the first edition of the entitled Rampage and admitted that he lost to a "better man on the night" at the pay per view. Following an unsuccessful attempt at getting a shot at the title at Wednesday Night Warzone, Devine engulfed in a feud with the legendary Freddy Flynn. The feud based around respect and the respect Devine was showing towards his fellow Mafia family member Charisma. At Battlefield 2009, the two squared off in one of the most emotional matches in WCSF history, with Devine putting Charisma on the line and Flynn putting his career on the line. The match ended when Charisma, who had shown some allegiance towards Flynn previously, turned on him and caused him the match. Devine's most valuable career accolodate had been accomplished and another legend stood in his way during the next feud. Following his victory over Flynn, Devine entered a feud with WCSF veteran and former world champion Brian Davis. The two parties attacked each other for weeks before facing off at Nothing to Lose 2009. In a back and forth match, Devine managed to scrape the win when The Executioner returned and cost his long term rival the match. Devine's reputation had only been enhanced further after this victory. With a number of superstars failing the wellness policy and the face of the WCSF changing forever due to Anthony Blake being suspended and thus resulting in the WCSF Championship becoming vacated, a new opportunity opened up for The Mafia leader. Revolution, The WCSF Title Tournament and the "takeover" On the three hour edition of WCSF Mayhem, Devine faced off against Tomohiro Matsuda. Just as it seemed Matsuda was about to make Devine tap out, Shane Evans unexpectedly enetered the ring and attacked Matsuda, resulting in a disqualification. Following a Mafia beatdown on Matsuda by Devine, Evans, Foster and Charisma, The Mafia leader announced that Shane Evans had become a member of the family. He also stated that his recruitment began his quest to headline Revolution, bring the WCSF Championship to the family and then take over the WCSF forever. Devine's quest to do this began the following week, in which he defeated his fellow family member Nick Foster in a match which lasted a mere ten seconds. In the following weeks show, Devine would square off against Mishima in the semi final of the WCSF Championship tournament, With The Mafia banned from ringside and Mishima looking in full control, it seemed as if Devine was about to be stopped when, out of nowhere, Amen entered the ring and cost Mishima the match. Amen proceeded to follow Devine's commands, much to the shock of the fans. Through his victory, Devine managed to book himself in the Revolution main event to compete for the WCSF Championship against his fellow family member Shane Evans. This led to a lot of speculation as to whether Evans would basically just hand Devine the match in a similar fashion to what Foster did weeks earlier. Evans came out on Mayhem and basically told Devine he would be honoured to hand him the title. But just as it appeared the plan would work as Devine and Evans were to sign the contract for Revolution, CEO Ralph Pierce appeared on the stage and announced that he had been given some evidence that proved that Anthony Blake's failed drug test had been tampered with, and he had reason to believe that the Mafia was behind it. With that news, he announced at Revolution IV, it would be Blake who would face Devine for the title in the main event. Blake then ran in from the crowd and struck, clearing the ring ring of the Mafia as Devine scurried up the ramp to safety. The Takeover, GM, and Carnage At Revolution IV, in the main event, Devine lost the Undisputed World Title match with Blake. WCSF Legend David Logan was named by Ralph Pierce as special referee to keep order and keep the Mafia out. Logan called the match down the middle though, and Blake hit the screwdriver for the pinfall. The Mafia's night wasn't over however, at the end of the show, it was revealed that the Mafia had attacked Pierce in his office and left him bloodied and beaten. Devine was then announced as being named the new GM of the WCSF show Carnage (named by the Mafia) by the board of directors. David Logan however, didn't take kindly to this, and confronted Devine and the Mafia on the Carnage the night after Revolution, challenging Devine to a match. Devine accepted, but announced it would take place in a steel cage. But before the match could officially start, the Mafia stormed the ring and attacked Logan as the cage lowered, Devine would proceed to smash Logan with a steel chair repeatedly in the head as Anthony Blake, Daz, Tomohiro Matsuda, Rage Mishima, and Everwinter tried in vain to get into the cage, but were fended off by the Mafia members inside. WCSF World Champion Devine's sights were firmly set on the World title, after disposing of Logan and running the show with The Mafia. He made himself a title match at Meltdown, and then proceeded to throw every obstacle in the way of champion Anthony Blake, including making him fight a handicap match with Evans & Foster, and forcing him to fight his friend Rage Mishima, with the stipulation being that if he lost, he would have to face Sinistra in a Street Fight, and if Mishima lost, his girlfriend Kuri would be fired. Blake lost the match and was forced to fight Sinistra the next week. Earlier in the night, Devine ordered Mishima, Murakami, and Kuri to leave, as well as the Mafia, however as Blake neared victory, The Mafia showed themselves to have not left, and attacked Blake, with the assault ending with a Sinistra Epitaph. At Meltdown, a banged up Blake fought hard, but at the end of the match, after attempted interference from Shane Evans & Nick Foster was thwarted by the Yakuzas, Amen came down, attacking Blake and leaving him for Devine, who hit the Devine Valley Driver and won his first World title. Everything looked bright for Devine, as he was in charge of the WCSF as GM, renaming the show to Carnage, and had free reign to do everything possible to put The Mafia in advantageous positions. All members of the Mafia held championship gold. The Mafia would face some stiff resistance though, as Rage Mishima brought his cousin Kenshiro Murakami in to the WCSF, then recruited Tomohiro Matsuda and most shocking of all, Muntari Mebah, and formed the new Yakuzas to oppose the strength in numbers of the Mafia. Devine was finally forced to defend his title at Hacked, where Mishima won the fan vote. Lucky for Devine, the referee called the match in his favour after several dubious calls, appearing the referee was on the take by the Mafia. As the war with The Yakuzas waged on, Devine would face a new challenge for his title, as The British Rose Daz became #1 Contender for Wednesday Night Warzone. Devine would barely scrape by with his title once again, as he managed to use his power with the company to get fired former star The Executioner (WCSF) back into the company, under the one condition that he take out Daz. Ex did as he was told, attacking Daz and allowing Devine to pull out the win. With Daz out of the way, the war between the two factions would have to come to end at Annihilation in a 4 on 4 Elimination match. Devine and The Mafia would win after Rage Mishima turned on his teammates and helped the Mafia win. Unfortunately for Devine, the same night it was discovered that former Mafia member Mark Thomas's agent Dan Morrison had been being paid off by Devine to convince his client from cashing in his Gold Rush contract on Devine. When Thomas found out, he attacked Morrison and quickly made it known that he was coming after Devine's title. Devine tried his best to use the Mafia to dispatch Thomas before Battlefield, but Thomas made it to the match, and defeated Devine with the Triple Play, ending Devine's reign. Trouble in the Family? After losing the title, Devine's attempts to regain it were put on the backburner as cracks began to form in the Mafia camp, particularly between Shane Evans & Nick Foster, who had been having troubles since losing the tag straps. Devine's attempts to patch things up had limited success though. On a personal level, Devine became embroiled in a feud with his old rival Anthony Blake, as well as the recently returned Alex Morgan. Morgan claimed that he was a better champion than both Blake and Devine had been while he was gone. The three met in an excellent triple threat match at Nothing to Lose, but Devine was pinned by Morgan for the loss.